Related "Willie Cochran" Articles

Lee Hogan's carryout soul food restaurant could someday be just a brief walk from the Obama presidential library.
It is good news, she said, that the library and museum could come to Washington Park, bringing a projected $600 million in economic...

Rahm Emanuel and a supportive political action committee spent more than $22.8 million in the preliminary and runoff elections en route to the mayor winning a second term, new campaign finance reports show.
By contrast, challenger Jesus...

Reports that filmmaker Spike Lee is planning to shoot a feature movie here called "Chiraq" ruined Aaron Pierce's mood Thursday.
"I'm just really concerned about using that name," said Pierce, a South Side rapper who started an...

After weeks of being criticized by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his surrogates for not offering specific tax increase proposals to fix Chicago's finances, challenger Jesus "Chuy" Garcia offered two on Wednesday: a graduated state income tax and an...

The mayor's race isn't all that's at stake on April 7. Voters in 18 wards will choose an alderman because no candidate in the Feb. 24 round received at least 50 percent of the vote. Though Chicago has held runoffs for alderman for many years, this...

As City Hall moved a step closer to allowing parkland to be used for the Obama library, a source told the Tribune that an announcement about where the library will go isn't likely until after the Chicago mayoral race is decided.The Chicago Plan Commission...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and challenger Jesus "Chuy" Garcia will have plenty of company as they prep for an April 7 showdown. Roughly one-third of Chicago's wards are headed for City Council runoffs — more than the city saw in 2011. That magic...

While Chicago aldermen press to boost the wages of the city's lowest-paid workers as they enter campaign season, half of those seeking another term on the City Council also have seen fit to accept their own pay increase.
In all, 28 of the city's 50...

Scores of aldermen, election attorneys and campaign volunteers formed a long line that snaked through the basement of the Dunne Cook County Office Building on Monday morning as they waited to be among the first to file petition signatures to get on the...

Aldermen on Wednesday raised questions about the speed camera ticketing system rolled out this year by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, asking whether it is the best way to slow traffic and whether it is following state law.
Ald. Willie Cochran, 20th, raised the...

Warning that the frequent railroad trains loaded with crude oil passing through the Chicago area are a “serious risk to public safety,” the City Council is calling for tighter restrictions on the shipments than federal officials proposed in July.
The...

TIF is not a four-letter word, but it might as well be. It's an acronym for a redevelopment tool — tax increment financing — that's been abused and overused in Chicago for decades, funneling public dollars to private projects that didn't necessarily...

More than a year after Chicago Public Schools closed nearly 50 schools for under-enrollment, there has been little progress on finding new uses for most of the now-empty buildings.
Just three of the buildings have been opened for bidding to potential...

A key city panel on Tuesday signed off on a plan to create a special taxing district on the South Side despite fears of some Washington Park residents that the plan could force them out of their homes.
The proposal would put a tax-increment financing...

A City Council committee on Wednesday took steps to close a loophole in the Chicago ordinance banning the sale of synthetic marijuana and stimulants.
The amendment endorsed by the council License and Consumer Protection Committee would ban the possession...

The Quinn administration handed out $800,000 in anti-violence money to a politically influential South Side community group even after the nonprofit filed documents with the state acknowledging it suffered from years of financial missteps, a Tribune...

An extra 15 miles of major Chicago streets could be resurfaced with unspent federal grant money previously targeted for other programs.
The City Council Budget Committee today recommended spending $15 million in unused Community Development Block Grant...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has announced five different approaches in the past two months aimed at smoothing over the scourge of potholes that pock Chicago streets.
There's good reason the data-driven Emanuel has been fixated on crumbling pavement: City...

Mary Young looked out at the hundreds of people who had packed into New Beginnings Church of Chicago to say goodbye to 6-month-old shooting victim Jonylah Watkins.
Young, a mother of eight, was about to bury her granddaughter. But first, she had a...

In the wake of the murder of 6-month-old Jonylah Watkins, the ward’s alderman announced Tuesday that he has contacted gang members to ask them not to harbor the killers of innocent victims.
Ald. Willie Cochran, 20th, a retired Chicago police sergeant,...